More than nine months after her husband, international racing champ Enzo Pastor, was killed by a gun-wielding motorcycle rider in Quezon City, Dalia Guerrero-Pastor has been ordered arrested for the nonbailable crime of parricide.
In an arrest warrant dated March 26, Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 91 Judge Lita Tolentino-Genilo directed “any officer of the law” to take Dalia into custody.
This was after Genilo denied the suspect’s motion to dismiss the case against her, saying she was convinced the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) finding of probable cause against Dalia was “supported by substantial evidence.”
The police tagged Dalia as a suspect in the June 12 killing of her husband after a policeman arrested for drugs claimed that she and businessman Domingo “Sandy” de Guzman had hired him to kill Pastor.
According to PO2 Edgar Angel, De Guzman—who was having an affair with Dalia—paid him P100,000 to kill Pastor. Although he later recanted, the DOJ said this did not necessarily negate his previous testimony.
Pastor was driving a truck carrying a race car in Quezon City when he and his helper, Paolo Salazar, were ambushed at the corner of Congressional and Visayas Avenues. Only Salazar survived.
The parricide case against Dalia has already been consolidated with the murder complaints against Angel and De Guzman in the Quezon City RTC Branch 85. Hearings on the case will resume on April 21.
Meanwhile, the arrest warrant for Dalia has been referred to the directors of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Philippine National Police’s Crime and Investigation Command, as well as the head of the warrant and subpoena unit of the Makati City police.
Her address in the warrant was listed as AA206 Galleria de Magallanes, Lapu-Lapu St., Barangay Magallanes, Makati City. This was where she and her husband lived with their two children although after Pastor’s death, Dalia and the kids moved out, according to Pastor’s mother, Remy.
As for Dalia’s whereabouts, “some are saying she’s here [in the Philippines], but the police say she has gone out of the country,” Remy said in a phone interview. She and her husband met on Tuesday with NBI director Virgilio Mendez to ask for help in finding Dalia.
Immigration watch list
Criminal Investigation and Detection unit head Chief Insp. Rodelio Marcelo of the Quezon City Police District said that according to the last information they received, Dalia has left the country for Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.
Dalia has been on the Bureau of Immigration watch list since she was tagged a suspect in Pastor’s slay. With the release of the arrest warrant, Remy was hopeful that the court would soon issue a hold departure order against Dalia.
“We’ve been waiting for this outcome. We are thankful to those who made this happen. This is something that has given us hope in the justice system,” Remy said.
Marcelo also expressed elation at the issuance of the arrest warrant. “It gives us a mandate to conduct a manhunt operation for her, and to subject her to the trial process,” he said.
At the same time, Remy was optimistic that an arrest warrant for De Guzman would also be issued during or after the April 21 hearing.
The businessman was arrested in an entrapment operation in August although he was later released due to the lack of a warrant on the murder complaint filed against him. –Jaymee T. Gamil, with Nancy C. Carvajal
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